On Wednesday 28 March 2012 the fifteenth edition of the Holland Animation Film Festival (HAFF) takes off. Five days of pure animation highlights in the historic centre of Utrecht: independent and commercial; handmade and 3D CGI. The biggest animation festival of the Netherlands shows all of it. The programming is in progress, but here we’ll raise a corner of the veil.

Competition programmes completed

The official selections of the competitions have been completed. The number of entries this year exceeded 1,300 for the international competitions for features and shorts, the competition for European student films and the competition for Dutch animation. For more information about the competitions and the selection visit www.haff.nl.

Nine films have been selected for the international competition for features. Together they present a journey around the world, from Iceland to Colombia and from the United Kingdom to Singapore and Japan. Among others the newest hilarious adventures of the well-known Christie family of Phil Mulloy (UK) and the tragicomic Gordo, Calvo y Bajito (Fat, Bald, Short Man) of Garlos Osuna from Colombia. Rainbow Fireflies (Nijiiro Hotaru) of Kounosuke Uda from Japan will have its international premiere at the HAFF.

Out of the generous amount of more than 800 shorts from all over the world HAFF selected 48 films for the international competition for shorts. This ranges from already successful films as A Morning Stroll (BAFTA 2012) of Grant Orchard and The Monster of Nix of Rosto to Double Fikret of Chinese artist and filmmaker Haiyang Wang. This film will have its world premiere at the HAFF.

A lot of upcoming talent has been selected for the competition for European student films. HAFF selected 53 films of the more than 300 entries from film and art academies from Europe. The charm of student films is that they often blithely follow new developments and open-mindedly take untrodden paths. This year’s harvest has a strikingly high quality. With classical craftsmanship and technical fireworks, exceptional lessons in life, grating, moving and exuberant films. Take for instance Fly Mill of Anu-Laura Tuttelberg from Estonia and Swarming of Joni Männistö from Finland.

Several juries will grant a Grand Prix in these competitions, but the audience has the final word and will elect the winner of the competition for Dutch animation. In this competition 48 films bid for the public’s favour. An independent selection committee in collaboration with VERS and VNAP (Dutch association of animation producers) made a choice from the entries for this competition.

Leader

HAFF is known for its surprising leaders. Vinex Productions (of duo Sjeng Schupp and Michiel van Dijk) chose a whole new approach with an opera singer and a little dog - inside the opera singer. Vinex Productions became well-known with their Kijkshock performances, with animation films accompanied by live music. See www.haff.nl for the HAFF leader.

HAFFTUbe

You can’t wait for the festival? Visit www.YouTube.com/HAFFTube, the official festival channel within YouTube for the international online competition for web films. The competition is open for entries right now, until March 10. The channel will be filled with an international state of the art selection of contemporary animated films from all over the world with a maximum length of 5 minutes. The best of the web ranges from independent to commissioned and from light-hearted to committed films.

Bugging the Bug of Velislav Kazakov (Cuckoo Animation, Canada), about a ladybug in a world of comic catastrophe. The runner-up - who came very close! - is Flowers of Chaos of Junyong Wu (Hongkong).

The international competition for web animations (five minutes max) took place on HAFFTube, supported by YouTube. The competition started in February. The first ten days, around five films a day were uploaded. Gradually, HAFFTube filled with animation films from all over the world, surprisingly including a lot of new work. The limit for the number of films was set at fifty. When this number was reached, HAFF removed a few films every day to make room for new entries.

The deadline was set at 10 March.

Subsequently, a jury consisting of filmmakers whose films were selected for the shorts competition took over and appointed a winner from the remaining shortlist.

Closing filmHAFF 2012 is almost over, so take your last chance to enjoy a day of shorts and features. Get inspired by Kei Oyama’s and Haiyang Wang’s choice. Or come and watch the closing film! Le Tableau by Jean-François Laguionie is scheduled today at 16.30 and 20.30 in the Louis Hartlooper Complex.

It tells the story about a French painter from the 1930s, who left a lot of unfinished paintings behind. Characters from his works in various phases of completion go in search of their true colours, in the context of an ongoing battle between the figures that were completely finished and claim supremacy and the ones that aren’t finished yet or even only outlines. Charming and inventive film with exuberant colours plays with a varied palette of art schools. French version, Flemish subtitles.